As many of you know, Colorado’s front range has enjoyed unprecedented rainfall — and floods of biblical proportions — these last few days. You can find the latest news at The Denver Post and 9News.

According to the Colorado Office of Emergency Management, as of Sunday evening, 17,494 homes are damaged, 1,502 homes are destroyed, 11,700 people are evacuated, 1,253 people are unaccounted for due to the flooding. Many, if not most people, will not be insured against the loss. The story of the two teenagers who died is heartbreaking.

You can see from these photos, the devastation is extreme. It’s amazingly widespread too — and really difficult to predict where will be hit next.

Folks in danger of evacuation might want to listen to my July interview with Community Preparedness Program Manager Fran Santagata about Preparing for Wildfires and Evacuations. It’s mostly focused on wildfires, but many of the same principles apply. You can listen to or download the podcast here:

Given that Colorado is having yet another god-awful fire season — once again, with fires burning all over the state — I thought I’d repost my notes from that presentation. I didn’t take notes on everything, just on points that I found particularly important or that I didn’t already know. Those notes are below.

At present, Paul and I are not in any danger of evacuation, but a fire could blow up in our neighborhood in very short order. Our neighborhood isn’t forested, but we have lots of scrub oak. I could evacuate in very short order if needed — but wow, I’d hate to have to do that.

Okay, now without further ado, here are my notes from last year’s presentation.

Make a Plan

Create a 72-hour kit

Identify valuables to take

Develop a communication plan for your family

Select a default meeting place for your family

Figure out where to stay if you’re evacuated

Find hotels that accept pets

Prepare Your House

Create breaks in the vegetation, so that the home can be defended

Identify and address potential combustibles, including firewood, decks, and gutters

Ask your local fire department to inspect your property

Beware of the “ladder fuels” from small bushes to trees to the house

Add a flag to identify the location of the septic tank

When a Fire Hits

1pm to 5 pm is the prime fire danger time

Close your windows and doors

Remove your drapes

Leave the water hoses hooked up

Open your driveway gates: give emergency vehicles access

Leave a note on the door (and gate) with contact information

Notification

Sign up to your county sheriff’s alert notification system

Follow your local news and sheriff on Facebook and Twitter

Be sure to have a phone that doesn’t require power, preferably in the bedroom

Call 911 if you see or smell smoke

Use a NOAA radio

Route Selection

Listen to the directions in the notification carefully

Know the alternate routes out of your neighborhood, including emergency access roads

Know where the shelters will be for humans and animals (e.g. fairgrounds)

What To Take

Humans and animals first — everything else can be replaced

Heirlooms, mementos, photos, computers, important papers

Clothes, toiletries, medications

Food and medications for your animals

Be Safe

Drive slowly! Think clearly! Be observant!

Don’t stop to take pictures

Beware of firefighters, wildlife, pets, falling trees, and more

Evacuation

Evacuations might be done in stages — or not

Follow the instructions of law enforcement on the ground

The shelter will be a good source of up-to-date information

Do not lock the house, if you’re comfortable with that: firefighters and law enforcement might need access, including to save their own lives

Returning Home

Expect some psychological trauma

Other Tasks

Take pictures of the house and stuff for insurance

Find ways to identify your animals (e.g brand or microchip)

If you have special needs, get registered on the special needs registry

Paul and I love magic, so for our 14th anniversary last night, I took him to see the comedic magic show of Sleightly Impossible in Denver. (It was a surprise for him… and a damn good one!) Sleightly Impossible is a trio of magicians, and they do a show once per month at the Lumber Baron Inn. They’re pretty much the only magic show in Denver. (That’s really unfortunate!)

I was hoping that the show would be entertaining… and all of my expectations were wildly exceeded. The magic was excellent — particularly the mind-blowing glass and bottle trick, plus the egg and bag sleight of hand. Plus, the whole audience was in stitches of laughter pretty routinely.

The best combination of magic and humor was a variation on the “card between two panes of glass” trick — only this version used a cheese-filled banana and two wheat bread in a ziplock bag. No, really! Here it is, in progress:

As I mentioned, Sleightly Impossible puts on a show once per month in Denver. It’s just $13 per person. If you like magic, you’ll not find any better live entertainment anywhere in Denver. Also, the show is very suitable for kids, say above the age of 7. Many kids were used as assistants too. (I got to hold the lemon for the “torn $20 bill in the lemon” trick.)

My only complaint is that Paul and I were a bit slow in getting our seats, so we were about four rows back. Our view was fine, but still, the closer the better! So next time I see the show — and I’d love to go again when we have guests in town — I want to sit in the front row!

Amanda Collins was a concealed carry permit holder, but due to university regulations at the time, not permitted to carry on campus. She was raped on campus. She testified against the proposed law that would ban concealed carry on campus in Colorado, and here, you can watch the reaction of a Republican and a Democratic state senator:

As much as I hate on Republicans — particularly our Colorado Republicans — they’re 100% on the side of the angels on this issue.

CO Governor Hickenlooper is now wavering on some of the proposed new gun laws, in part due to the threat of Magpul Industries to leave the state if they pass and because of insensitive comments made by Democrats about women and rape that have made national news.

This is the perfect time for Colorado residents to contact his office and register an “AGAINST” position on the various gun bills.

Go to Contact the Governor. Then on the “Jurisdiction” dropdown menu, select “Legislation”. On the “Bill” dropdown menu, select the various gun laws up for consideration. You can then select “AGAINST” in the “For/Against” menu and leave a comment. (You also have to indicate your name, address, etc.)

I’ve already submitted my “AGAINST” comments. Comments don’t have to be long, because they’re mostly just tallying for/against. But I said the following:

On HB13-1224 (magazine restrictions): “If law enforcement officials might need more than 15 rounds to protect themselves and other innocent people, so might homeowners faced with multiple intruders.”

On HB13-1226 (concealed carry on college campus): “Experience from Colorado State University shows that concealed weapons holders can be responsible. Please don’t disarm women who the state of CO has already agreed are fit to carry a handgun for self-protection.”

Update from Diana: Here’s the text of the two emails that I just submitted to Governor Hickenlooper. Feel free to make use of them in crafting your own emails.

Please VETO HB13-1224

Please veto this bill. Just as law enforcement might need larger-capacity magazines, so might concealed-carry permit holders and people defending their homes against criminals.

This law is nothing but security theater, and it would not do anything to prevent mass shootings. Most people in Colorado know that. They support the right to self-defense, and they won’t support politicians who forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.

Please VETO HB13-1226

Please support the right to self-defense on campus by vetoing this bill. Here’s what I wrote about it on my blog earlier this week:

When I was a graduate student at CU Boulder, I had to walk a few blocks off-campus, through a residential neighborhood, to get to my car. I took classes in the evening on occasion, and during those times, my walk was dark and lonely. Like other students, I’d receive periodic reports of sexual assaults just off-campus, and that worried me.

The police chief’s advice of carrying a “safety whistle” was pure absurdity to me. If I was attacked, that wouldn’t do me a lick of good. Also, I knew that I couldn’t hope to outrun my attacker: I’m a slow sprinter, and even in elementary school, I only ever beat the fat girl in running the 50-yard dash. Really, I wanted my “safety Ruger” — because that could have actually kept me safe! Instead, I often took Kate, my German Shepherd with me to those late classes. She probably wouldn’t have helped much if I’d been attacked, but she might have deterred a criminal.

Moreover, in the wake of school shootings, I hated to think of being disarmed and defenseless, particularly as a teacher in a classroom full of terrified students. I’d have an obligation to protect my students as best as I could, yet I’d be unable to do much of anything. I hated that with a passion.

***

Again, please support the right of people on campus to defend themselves. This laws will not prevent shooting on campus. It will only prevent the victims from defending themselves.

Ari Armstrong published an excellent op-ed in Sunday’s Denver Post against the campaign finance measure on Colorado’s ballot, Amendment 65. The whole op-ed is worth reading, but I particularly enjoyed his argument that restrictions on campaign spending are restrictions on speech. He writes:

You have no right of free speech if you cannot spend your resources how you want on speech. With the possible exception of shouting over panhandlers on a street corner, every form of speech requires the expenditure of resources.

To write for an audience, you need computers, Internet connections, copy machines, books, or newspapers. To speak, you need microphones, podcasts, film equipment, radio signals, or television transmissions. Spending money on speech is part of speaking. Controlling spending on speech is controlling speech itself.

Yes! That’s exactly why free speech depends on property rights — and the “dictators of the proletariat” understood that. The Soviet Union didn’t ban the free press directly in its early years: it simply nationalized all printing presses.

Ari then observes:

The very idea that government should attempt, through force, to “level the playing field” in the realm of communication and ideas is pernicious. It is the government’s proper job to protect each individual’s right to speak freely, whether alone or as part of a group, not to forcibly silence some voices so that others face less competition.

Certainly, I’ve felt that heavy burden in speaking against Colorado’s “personhood” amendments in 2008 and 2010, as I described in detail in my December 2011 testimony. No advocate of campaign finance regulations has ever directly addressed the huge contradiction between their stated goals with campaign finance regulations and my experience as an ordinary citizen attempting to speak out. It’s infuriating.

In addition to this excellent op-ed, Ari gave this short speech on Amendment 65 at a local forum on the election:

Ari deserves the thanks of every Colorado resident for his work advocating our rights to speak freely!

According to Colorado’s Secretary of State, the proposed “personhood” amendment won’t make the 2012 ballot due to lack of signatures — and that decision is final. The Denver Post reports:

The Colorado secretary of state’s office said Tuesday the proposed anti-abortion “personhood” amendment will not be on the 2012 ballot — no matter the outcome of proponents’ planned legal action to prove they collected enough voter signatures.

The ballot certification deadline was Monday. Even if a judge rules personhood sponsors’ petition was sufficient, the measure would have to wait for the 2014 general election, secretary of state spokesman Andrew Cole told The Post Tuesday.

However, that’s not the end of the story. Personhood USA takes a different view:

Personhood USA founder Keith Mason said Tuesday supporters have a 30-day window to take legal action challenging Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s Aug. 29 determination that the Personhood Amendment failed to make the ballot — falling short by 3,859 signatures.

Petitioners collected 82,246 valid signatures of the 86,105 required, according to state officials. “We have until Sept. 28 to file our lawsuit. And the more we look, line by line, the more confident we are we have enough signatures,” Mason said. “We have recovered thousands of signatures.”

Personhood USA seems serious in their desire to make a legal challenge, as seen in this September 14th email to supporters:

We need your help! Last month we told you that volunteers worked tirelessly to collect over 112,000 signatures to get the Personhood Amendment on the ballot in Colorado. But the Secretary of State in Colorado has denied our request by claiming that we are 3,700 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot. This a purely political act, as many of the signatures discarded were actually valid signatures!

We must file a court challenge within 30 days, and we fully intend to do so. But we need your financial help! In order to continue our fight for the unborn and protect all innocent life we need to raise over $50,000 to combat the political machine in Colorado. …

They might win that legal challenge — or they might lose it. Basically, right now nobody knows whether “personhood” will be on the ballot in 2012 or not.

That’s hugely frustrating for me. All plans to update Ari Armstrong’s and my 2010 policy paper The “Personhood” Movement Is Anti-Life are up in the air until this matter is resolved. Right now, I’m not sure what kind of revisions we’ll want to make, because we may want to talk about the new language of the 2012 ballot measure or not.

Also, I don’t know whether I’ll want to raise money for those revisions or not, as I did in 2010. I’m not willing to slog through the burdens and risks of reporting again, as would be required if “personhood” makes the ballot, unless, that is, the court rules in our favor next week. In that case, I won’t have to report, even if “personhood” is on the ballot. That would be awesome.

Gah! The uncertainty is just killing me. These matters will be resolved soon, I know, but time is running short!

Back in April, my neighborhood riding club hosted an excellent presentation by Fran Santagata of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on emergency preparedness, particularly for wildfires. I’ve been through two major fires before, so I thought that I was pretty well-informed. To my surprise, I learned far more than expected.

We’re living in a damned tinderbox here in Colorado right now. It’s dry as a bone, terribly hot, and often terribly windy. The conditions are the worst possible.

At present, none of the fires threaten Paul and me. They’ve all been an hour north or south, but something could blow up in our neighborhood in very short order. (Our neighborhood isn’t forested, but we have lots of scrub oak.) Paul and I are busy making evacuation preparations, now that we’ve returned from Los Angeles. The risk is so high, and we might have just a few moments to pack up ourselves and our beasts.

Make a Plan

Create a 72-hour kit

Identify valuables to take

Develop a communication plan for your family

Select a default meeting place for your family

Figure out where to stay if you’re evacuated

Find hotels that accept pets

Prepare Your House

Create breaks in the vegetation, so that the home can be defended

Identify and address potential combustibles, including firewood, decks, and gutters

Ask your local fire department to inspect your property

Beware of the “ladder fuels” from small bushes to trees to the house

Add a flag to identify the location of the septic tank

When a Fire Hits

1pm to 5 pm is the prime fire danger time

Close your windows and doors

Remove your drapes

Leave the water hoses hooked up

Open your driveway gates: give emergency vehicles access

Leave a note on the door (and gate) with contact information

Notification

Sign up to your county sheriff’s alert notification system

Follow your local news and sheriff on Facebook and Twitter

Be sure to have a phone that doesn’t require power, preferably in the bedroom

Call 911 if you see or smell smoke

Use a NOAA radio

Route Selection

Listen to the directions in the notification carefully

Know the alternate routes out of your neighborhood, including emergency access roads

Know where the shelters will be for humans and animals (e.g. fairgrounds)

What To Take

Humans and animals first — everything else can be replaced

Heirlooms, mementos, photos, computers, important papers

Clothes, toiletries, medications

Food and medications for your animals

Be Safe

Drive slowly! Think clearly! Be observant!

Don’t stop to take pictures

Beware of firefighters, wildlife, pets, falling trees, and more

Evacuation

Evacuations might be done in stages — or not

Follow the instructions of law enforcement on the ground

The shelter will be a good source of up-to-date information

Do not lock the house, if you’re comfortable with that: firefighters and law enforcement might need access, including to save their own lives

Returning Home

Expect some psychological trauma

Other Tasks

Take pictures of the house and stuff for insurance

Find ways to identify your animals (e.g brand or microchip)

If you have special needs, get registered on the special needs registry

Breckenridge Brewery will look to build its new brewery on the East Coast, taking with it 50 to 75 jobs that otherwise would have been created in the Denver area, because of the Colorado Legislature’s failure to pass a bill that would have changed state law to allow it to expand, its president said Monday.

Ed Cerkovnik said without House Bill 1347 — a bill that passed a House committee unanimously but that House leaders will allow to die without a vote this week because of opposition that mounted to it from several industries — the brewery cannot hold a license to operate several brewpubs at the same time it holds a license to operate a manufacturing plant that produces more than 60,000 barrels a year in Colorado.

Gee thanks, Colorado! We wouldn’t want those jobs created in our state!

A federal court has thrown out a 2010 Colorado law meant to spur online retailers like Amazon to collect state sales tax.

The law had already been temporarily blocked in federal court last year, but U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn’s ruling Friday permanently handcuffs it. “I conclude that the veil provided by the words of the act and the regulations is too thin to support the conclusion that the act and the regulations regulate in-state and out-of-state retailers even-handedly,” Blackburn wrote in his opinion. The law and the rules to carry it out “impose an undue burden on interstate commerce” and are unconstitutional, the judge wrote.

It’s not clear whether the State of Colorado will appeal this ruling… but I hope not! Amazon hasn’t yet instituted its affiliate program in Colorado. When Ari Armstrong inquired with them, they said:

Thank you for contacting us regarding rejoining the Associates program. At this point, we’re evaluating the decision from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. We’d welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to Colorado residents. We’ll contact you if we are able to re-open the program in the future.

As Ari says in his post, “Hopefully, the Associates program will again become available. Now will the legislature kindly leave us the hell alone to earn money?”